Why Halo 5 Has No Split-Screen At All

Halo 5: Guardians is doing away with splitscreen, a feature that is basically synonymous with Halo. This announcement drew heat from some fans, and now developer 343 Industries has responded.

In a post on Halo Waypoint, the developer said dropping split-screen was an incredibly tough decision, but explained that it was necessary to provide the best experience to players.

“The decision to remove split-screen support from Halo 5: Guardians was one of the most difficult ones we’ve ever had to make as a studio,” executive producer Josh Holmes said. “We know that for many of our fans, Halo has meant playing together with friends in the same room. We all have great memories of past Halo split-screen multiplayer matches.

“To move Halo’s gameplay forward and deliver a true next-gen experience, tough choices had to be made,” he added. “Our decision was driven by a desire for scale, fidelity, and focus to ensure that we would deliver the best quality experience possible.”

Holmes on to say that Halo 5’s “massive scale environments,” better visuals, and improved AI might not be able to be realized if split-screen was in the mix.

“Many of our ambitious goals for Halo 5 would be compromised in a split-screen setting and the time spent optimizing and addressing split-screen-specific issues would take focus from building other parts of the game,” he said. “Game development is a balancing act of resources, time, and technology, and in this case we made the tough decision to sacrifice something that’s been near and dear to us all.”